Cabinets, particularly filing cabinets, have been provided with doors which are pivoted open from a closed position and then slid into the interior of the cabinet housing. These doors are commonly known in the trade as flipper doors. A wide variety of flipper door assemblies have been proposed and examples of such prior art assemblies are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,853,355; 3,794,401; 3,909,090; 4,375,907; 4,615,570; and 4,600,254.
Many flipper door assemblies employ a rack and pinion squaring mechanism to prevent jamming or cocking of the flipper door when being slid into and out of the cabinet housing. Some of these assemblies have the pivot or swing axis of the flipper door directly corresponding to the axis of the pinions. In the flipper door mechanism shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,794,401, for example, the door pivots around a pinion equalizing shaft provided with the pinions at its ends. The pinions are confined within a pair of trackways that contain racks with which the pinions mesh. The shaft also is provided with a pair of rollers which roll along smooth tracks adjacent the racks to support the weight of the door from the meshing teeth of the racks and pinions.
In other flipper door assemblies the pivot axis of the door is located forwardly of the axis of the pinions. One such mechanism shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,907 employs a pair of hinges each having a generally flat part which is mounted to the inside surface of the door and an L-shaped part which has its outermost end rotatably mounted on the pinion equalizing shaft.
Prior art flipper door assemblies have associated therewith one or more disadvantages including: complex and expensive construction, unreliability, inefficient use of cabinet space, noisy and/or difficult operation, etc. Consequently, there remains a continuing need for an improved flipper door assembly for office cabinets and the like which eliminates drawbacks associated with prior assemblies while providing advantages not attainable by known flipper door assemblies.
Flipper doors have been used to cover the openings for pull-out file drawers suspended in filing cabinets. Some drawers for filing cabinet and other office appliances have been assembled from panels secured together by welding and/or by fasteners such as screws, nut and bolts. Other drawer assemblies of interlocking construction have had the panels thereof secured together by tabs mating with openings, and examples of interlocking drawer and other assemblies are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,621,304; 3,752,553; 4,120,551; and 4,350,257. Drawer assemblies also have employed recesses in side panels to receive a runner track or tabs on runners or slides for interlocking with slots in the drawer side panels, and examples of these drawers and related mounting hardware are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,771,849; 4,427,245; and 4,458,964. Office cabinet drawers also have been provided with rods for supporting files and examples of these drawers and other containment structures are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,099,665; 2,278,403; 3,172,711; 3,528,716; and 4,529,092. Notwithstanding the variety of drawer assemblies that are known to the art, there still remains a continuing need for improved drawer assemblies and suspensions having advantages not attainable by known drawer assemblies and suspensions, and especially improved pull-out drawer or other component assemblies for filing cabinets, desks, etc.